Manipur Geography for UPSC: Interactive Map, Rivers and Protected Areas
a state centred on the Imphal valley, ringed by forested hill ranges
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Protected areas mapped
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Rivers mapped
At a glance
Capital
Imphal
Language
Manipuri
Dance
Ras Lila
Area
22,327 km²
Coastline
Landlocked
Highest peak
Mount Tenipu · 2,994 m
Borders
Nagaland, Assam, Mizoram, Myanmar (international)
Why UPSC asks about Manipur
Manipur is the Imphal valley ringed by hills: Loktak lake (with its phumdis, floating biomass islands, Keibul Lamjao NP), the Barak and Manipur river systems, and the Indo-Myanmar border. UPSC tests Loktak's Ramsar status, phumdi ecology, and the state's river system draining to Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Did you know
Manipur has no biosphere reserve. India's 18 biosphere reserves are spread across only 16 states, and Manipur is not among them. The nearest is Nokrek (Meghalaya).
Barak
Rises Liyai Kullen hills, Senapati district; flows to flows into Bangladesh (Surma-Meghna) · 125 km
The Barak rises in Manipur's northern hills and drains the state's southern valleys.
Imphal
Rises Senapati hills; flows to joins the Manipur river flowing to Myanmar's Chindwin · 131 km
The Imphal river drains the Imphal valley past the capital.
Iril
Rises Imphal valley's eastern hills; flows to joins the Imphal river · 148 km
A tributary of the Imphal river on the valley's eastern edge.
Loktak Lake
The largest freshwater lake in north-east India, in Manipur's Bishnupur district, designated Ramsar in 1990. Famous for its phumdis, floating mats of vegetation that include the Keibul Lamjao NP, the world's only floating national park.
Ramsar (1990); NE India's largest lake, of floating phumdis.
Keibul Lamjao NP
A park on the Loktak Lake, the world's only floating national park, made of phumdis (floating mats of vegetation). It is the sole natural habitat of the sangai (brow-antlered deer), Manipur's state animal and one of the world's rarest deer.
World's only floating national park; sole home of the sangai deer.
Yangoupokpi-Lokchao WLS
A sanctuary in Chandel district on the Indo-Myanmar border, a biodiversity-rich evergreen forest with the hoolock gibbon and slow loris.
Indo-Myanmar border forest; hoolock gibbon habitat.
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